CAMPGROUND HAPPENINGS - December 14/2011

MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY & PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR CUSTOMERS, SEASONALS AND FRIENDS

Notes Of Interest and News

Not a whole lot going on at this time of the year. There are some seasonal camping on the weekends. With this type of weather, this just incredible. However checking with our campground diary over the last 14 years this is not so unusual. We Have very little snow on the gound. From zero to maybe 3". Not really enough for any winter sports.

RIVER LEVELS

-   0'- Being Normal Summer/Winter Low, Good Canoeing starts at Level 1. River flood level is at 8. The river is a low level. The river level is holding steady. The river is now all frozen over with a thin sheet of ice. I'm going to check the ice thickness later.

Climate

The weather has been icredible. We had about a few days of normal temperatures ( - 7 & -15) but for the most part we have had around -2 in the day and about -7 in the evening. The last couple of days the temp stayed about -3. Lovely for outdoor working or just walking.

Birds

Starts Jan 1st 2011

March 15- First Canada Geese. Pine Grosbeaks are gone. Birds are about a week late compared to last year. March 26- Northern Harrier. April 3rd- Well don't know where the Redpolls were but they showed up today. April 5th- Robin and Sandhill Cranes. Apr- 7 Purple Finch. We went to Fargo on the 6th and saw a lot of migration so it will only be a couple of days to here. Apr 7th- Tons of Juncos, Purple Finch. Apr 8th- Common Mergansers. Apr 9th - Mallards. Apr 10th- Tree Sparrow, Common Grackle, Fox Sparrow and Hooded Merganser. Apr 11th- Gulls (sp). , Mallards, Red-wing Blackbird. Apr 12th- Ring-billed Gulls, Wood Duck. Apr- 13th Northern Flicker. Apr 14th- Common Goldeneye, Sharp-shinned Hawk. Apr. 15- Turkey Vulture. Apr.16th- Rusty Blackbirds. Apr 22- Wilson's Snipe. Apr 24- Song Sparrow, Tundra Swan. Apr 25- Osprey & Long-eared Owl. Apr 26- Tree Swallow. May 1- Savannah Sparrow, Fox Sparrow. May 2- Eastern Phoebe, Greater Yellowlegs, Chipping Sparrow, Cowbird. May 3- Yellow-rumped Warbler. May 5 - White-throated Sparrow, Brown-headed Cowbird. May 6- Spotted Sandpiper. May 7- Barn Swallow. May 8- Bank Swallows. May 9- Harris's Sparrow. May 10- Rose-breasted Grosbeak, American Goldfinch, Belted Kingfisher. May 11- Ruby-throated Hummingbird. May 12- Clay-colored Sparrow. May 13- Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. May 18- Hermit Thrust. May 21- Veery. Birding is slowly starting. May 21- Mourning Dove. May 23- Baltimore Oriole. We have above normal numbers of Pine Siskins, Baltimore Oriole, Purple Finch, Goldfinch and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. May 28- Virginia Rail. June 1- Mourning Warbler, Red-eyed Vireo. June 2 - Pine Warbler, Cedar Waxing. Long-eared Owl. June 7- Merlin. June 9- Ovenbird. June 12- Broad-winged Hawk. June 14th- Great-blue Heron. June 18- Redstart. Beautiful close ups of Pileated Woodpeckers. July 12- Eastern Towhee. July 13- Least Flycatcher. August 14 - Well fall migration has started with birds flocking up, Blackbirds, Cranes, Sparrows and some geese flying. Oct 8- We have lost quite a few birds to the migration south, the Goldfinch and Purple Finch are still here. Oct 11- Cooper's Hawk. Oct 13- Sharp-shinned Hawk. It seems like the Goldfinch are gone. Oct 14- Two Brewers Blackbird. Oct 23- most non resident are gone now, still a few robins, purple finch, Canada geese, hawks and eagles passing through. Oct 29- Most of the migratory birds have gone. November 4th- Pine Grosbeaks. Nov 19th- Northern Shrike. Nov 20th- White-crowned Sparrow.

PLANTS & ANIMALS, ETC.

Tess treed a raccoon in the evening. Deer lazing in the campground by the loop. Apr 13th- Trees are coming in little Buds. Some pussy willows out. Apr. 23- We'll have a lot of fire wood and logs on the campground when this is done. Frogs are out. Apr 29- Some trees are leafing out. Grass is really turning green. May 25- Trees are out in full leaf now. It seems like Manitoba Conservation is going wild with giving out cutting permits. Some nice hiking area's are being clear cut and there hasn't been any tree planting to replace the trees for at least a couple of years. If you see places like this, write your MLA. An example of this is where the old fire tower was. This was a beautiful site and now there is nothing there. June 10-Turtles (Snapping and Painted) are starting to lay their eggs and they are everywhere this year. Lots of rabbits also, there are little baby bunnies running around the valley up top and quite a few raccoons around. Yesterday we had a small black bear up by site # 15 but Tess treed it and then when it came down, we made sure it was well on it's way to other destinations. Haven't had any more problems with bears but there are still a few raccoons around. Trees are in beautiful fall colors. They have are starting to drop leaves. Beaver have three dams across the river upstream of the forestry museum. Nov 12th saw a lovely 3 point buck standing in the river. Nov 19th- mink running on the river ice.

RECREATION  INFORMATION

 The first fish June 26 was caught last weekend. The 1st Walleye caught July 3 by a young lady who had never caught a fish before. A lot of people in for four wheeling and hiking. Watch it while you are out, there was a forest fire just the other side of PR 505 a couple of days ago, then there was another one last night one kilometer west of here. Both are out. Oct 29- 4 wheeling going on. Mostly hunters are getting ready for deer. Nov 14th hunting season is open. Not as many hunters as in previous years. Dec 12- not much going on now because of the lack of snow.

These are from September 28, 2011

These are from 1st snowfall November 14, 2011

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